In previous article, we compared the cutting speed bwtween CO₂ and fiber laser cutting, now we will discuss the concerns of all manufacturers: cost.
Maintenance Cost
Maintenance requirement of fiber laser is much lower than CO₂. Main difference is delivery system of laser beam.
- Fiber laser has a monolithic configuration, laser beam is delivered to cutting head via fiber wire. This means that optic path will not be polluted completely. Main consumption of fiber laser are nozzle (same as CO₂ laser) and protective lens.
- CO₂ laser deliver beam to cutting head via bend mirror contained into bellows (sometimes full of nitrogen).
With time goes by, mirror and bellows will become dirty which needs to be cleaned or changed to avoid decreasing of cutting performance. Also there will be some holes inside bellows with repeated movement of machine.
Usually heat of laser will cause mirror deformation and reduce the power supplied to the cutting head, which will cause laser beam misalignment. You need to adjust data of cutting at the same time.
The main and most costly issue with CO₂ lasers occurs when laser beam is reflected back to the beam delivery system, which will damage expensive oscillators.
It will take about 4-5 hours each week to maintenance CO₂ laser, however fiber laser only needs half an hour each week.
The alignment of a laser beam is important to ensure an even cut finish on all sides of a profile. The most common reason of misalignment is a collision between the cutting head and tip components, and can occur in CO₂ and fiber laser systems.
Correcting misalignment on CO₂ lasers is complex and time-consuming because beam delivery systems contain at least three mirrors. For fiber laser, it just needs to adjust one mirror.
Electricity Cost
Fiber lasers are cheaper and more environmentally friendly than CO₂ lasers in terms of electricity costs.
- Efficiency of CO₂ laser is about 10%, so to power a 6kW laser requires a 60kW power supply, while efficiency of a fiber laser cutter is about 45%(can be as high as 50%), so only a 13kW power supply is needed.
- Obviously, as the laser power increases, so does the electrical cost of machine, because a larger cooler is required. However, chiller for CO₂ lasers will have higher electrical costs based on the same power.
- The electrical requirements of the extraction system will depend on the required size: as the laser power increases, so does the required extraction system.
- In addition, as the cutting table area increases, so does the power requirement of the filtration system.
In all, the significantly reduced power costs of fiber laser machines can provide significant cost savings for cutting applications.
